Griselda Lozano

C Griselda Lozano

*Bestseller 2015* Griselda Lozano Carvajal works as an archivist in the Archive of the Crown of Aragon. She specialises in the documentation of the Valley of Aran (in the Spanish Pyrenees). The novel's heroine is Bernadeth Centelles a young researcher who, alongside her faithful sidekick, Eetu, uncovers a mystery in the Aran Valley archives and the Vatican Secret Archive, concerning the nature of Christianity and its transmission in European civilization. The novel also follows a parallel story of a king's betrayal, and deals with the question of the troubadours and their relation to Christianity. From the outset, it seems that Bernadeth and Eetu's research is being challenged and blocked by unseen forces. In spite of suspected occult tampering, Bernadeth stumbles upon a mysterious medieval manuscript telling the adventures of a young orphaned monk called Gojat. It recounts his travels as a papal envoy through twelfth-century Europe, with special emphasis on Occitania (Provence). A reader familiar with medieval European history will recognise many well-known characters, like Abelard, Bernard of Clairvaux and Eleanor of Aquitaine, here brought together in a novel for the first time in literary history.